On the run and on Facebook: wanted man flees Cyprus

Dylan Welch and Nick McKenzie

ONE of Australia's most wanted men - the alleged drug lord Hakan Ayik - has fled custody in Cyprus after being briefly detained by border police.

Mr Ayik has been on the run since August when NSW Police issued a warrant for his arrest after a two-year organised crime investigation, called Operation Hoffman.

Despite the setback, the Australian Federal Police have landed a blow against the Ayik syndicate.

His Chinese business partner, Man Kong ''Mark'' Ho, was arrested in September by Hong Kong organised-crime detectives while he was visiting a relative in hospital.

Advertisement

The arrest came after a request from the AFP and the federal Attorney-General's Department, which wants to extradite Mr Ho to Australia to face charges over the alleged importation of 50 kilograms of ice.

Police have said that Mr Ho and Mr Ayik have been linked to multiple drug importations into Sydney and Melbourne over the past three years.

Hoffman, a landmark investigation led by the Australian Crime Commission co-operating with most of the nation's federal and state policing agencies, temporarily shut down the local end of an international drugs ring with links to the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle club, Chinese triads and corrupt police, prison guards and waterfront workers.

That operation sparked claims from former senior organised-crime investigators that policing agencies were struggling to combat a surging drug importation industry and that most importations were passing over the border without detection.

The operation led to the arrest of senior outlaw bikies and Chinese organised-crime figures, but Mr Ayik avoided arrest by remaining overseas after the operation finished.

Criminal sources said Mr Ayik had evaded capture at the Greek-Turkish border either by bribing police or by fleeing from border officials who fired their weapons at him but missed.

The sources said he was staying on the move and trying to visit only countries with which Australia has no extradition treaty, such as Turkey.

The AFP is co-ordinating efforts to capture him.

Mr Ayik is a long-time associate of the national outlaw bike club the Comanchero, and has been a friend since high school with the club's national president, Duax Hohepa ''Dax'' Ngakuru. The Comanchero are suspected of running a drug distribution network for Mr Ayik and several of its members are facing drugs charges.

Mr Ayik is well known for displaying his activities on his internet social networking sites including Facebook.

While under investigation, he posted two travel videos on his Facebook site, including one which showed him meeting Mr Ho and Mr Ngakuru in Hong Kong.

The video also depicted him driving in expensive cars and partying with prostitutes. At a recent organised-crime conference, the chief executive of the Australian Crime Commission, John Lawler, said Mr Ayik represents ''what we in law enforcement are facing''.

He said the modern criminal, such as Mr Ayik, is focused on amassing great wealth, is technologically savvy, highly mobile and difficult to track.